Comments and Challenges

Looks like my post about the need for an Arab renaissance has stimulated some pretty good debate. Thank you. I was hoping to put forth ideas that inspired discussion :-)

I wanted to respond to a few of the comments, but I felt that a public response might be more appropriate to help expand on and to clarify some of my thoughts.

Chipper has pointed out, correctly, that most of what I talked about was theoretical big picture stuff and was lacking in the details. This comes mainly from my approach to analyzing a problem. I tend to look at the big picture first and then once I’ve decided on the general direction I need to go, I start hammering out the details. This essay was written just a few hours after having first read Mr. Den Beste’s article. As a result, it has my initial big picture thoughts.

I’ve been thinking about Chipper’s questions since I first read them. As for the military related questions, I honestly don’t know the answer. It may be (and I hope it is) a short occupation, followed by a long term basing commitment – similar to what we have with Germany and Japan. But I honestly don’t know how long a commitment we’re in for or what our exit strategy should be. I assume (I know, stupid thing to do.) that our nation’s leaders have already thought out our exit strategy. If not, they better get working on it!

As for the education, I believe that it has to be approached in a number of different ways. Creating a real education system based on the pursuit of knowledge, not religious truth or a dictator’s pet thoughts, will be the long term key to ensuring stability in the Iraq. Looking shorter term, there are a couple of things that we can do to help expedite Iraq’s move towards the Enlightenment phase. First we need to engage in almost a propaganda campaign to reinforce the concept of basic human rights (no torture, summary executions, fair trials, etc). This may require the military to get involved with surprise inspections of Iraqi jails and law enforcement centers top ensure compliance. Next, I believe that a business and agricultural education program would be extremely beneficial in helping to make Iraq more self-sufficient (which will help with the Arab pride issue). I will also help to diversify their economy beyond just exporting oil and will bring in more hard currency to raise the standard of living in the nation. I’m sure that we will find other educational needs to fill, but we need to make sure that we steer the education towards the pursuit of knowledge above all else.

Chipper also asked what kind of government we should put in place and Mr. Wells pointed out, quite correctly I believe, that forcing an American style democracy on Iraq would be a bad idea. I think that we need to set up certain parameters (representative government, secular, respectful of minority groups, etc.) but within those parameters, let the Iraqi people decide what kind of system to put in place. Maybe they’ll decide that they want an American democracy. Maybe they’ll decide to set up a parliamentary system like most of Europe has. Maybe they’ll want a strong executive; maybe they’ll want a strong legislative branch. Those are decisions that the Iraqi people need to make, not the US. Mr. Wells is correct in his assessment that if we go in and force a government on Iraq we will breed extremely deep resentment, which will put us in a worse off position for trying- right now the resentment is only superficial. Caution and cooperation should be the key words in helping to establish the post-war Iraqi government.

Mr. Wells also brings up the potential cost of Turkish participation. As I stated in an earlier post, I believe that the Turks are good allies for us. Their request for money doesn’t really bother me all too much. But if they’re demanding free reign over the Kurds in Turkey and northern Iraq as part of their price – it is too much. Part of the reason we are stating for going to war is humanitarian – we want to liberate the Iraqi people from a repressive regime. If we sell out the Kurds to Turkey, given Turkey’s past record with them, it would give our enemies ammunition that we were hypocritical. We rescue one people from bondage only to allow another to be put under the boot. It is possible for an ethnic group to be divided across a national border, without there being the need for revolution (look at Mexicans on both sides of the US-Mexican border). The key is respect for the views of the group and a fairly open border that allows the group to satisfy its social needs.

I really appreciate the responses I’ve gotten so far. They’ve forced me to think through my position in more detail and have also taught me some new things. Keep the comments and challenges coming!